


Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

by thewayofthetrashcompactor (BriarLily)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amnesia, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/M, Kylo is an idot, Prompt Fill, Reydar Month, reydar - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:46:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BriarLily/pseuds/thewayofthetrashcompactor
Summary: Kylo wakes up in the hospital on New Year's unsure exactly what happened the night before. (He doesn't feel good about his chances that he didn't embarrass himself though.)





	1. Waking Up

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a prompt for the [au meme](http://thewayofthetrashcompactor.tumblr.com/post/155682269953/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short) on tumblr that got really long. Anon's original prompt was: "I'm not sure if you are stil doing this, or if you combine the prompts, but I was thinking 49 + 18 plus maybe a little 5 on the mix? ;)" (49. boss/intern au, 18. waking up with amnesia au, 5. one night stand and falling pregnant au)
> 
> Also decided to work in Reydar for the [Reylo Fanfiction Anthology's](http://reylofanfictionanthology.tumblr.com/) [Reydar Month](https://reylofanfictionanthology.tumblr.com/post/155931714307/welcome-to-reydar-month-2017-love-in-unexpected), so we're also hitting a diagonal on the [bingo board](https://reylofanfictionanthology.tumblr.com/post/155812460474/love-in-unexpected-places-reydar-month-bingo) with hacked, midnight, free space, med bay, and employee of the month, and then real talk with real folks and glasses just for fun.

Kylo peeled his eyes open, feeling like they had been glued shut. A tiny crack revealed blinding white light, and he quickly closed them again. His head pounded and his ears seemed to be stuffed with cotton and ringing at the same time. He tried opening his eyes again, the pounding in his head getting loud enough to hear as he did. Still blinding. He stubbornly persisted, until the white resolved itself into a ceiling and walls. He flexed his hand. Something was stuck to it, but it seemed to move okay. Just his head then.

“Kylo?” A familiar voice came from his right. He instinctively turned towards it and winced. Neck too. 

Gritting his teeth, he peered at the dark shape next to him. He was confused at first; her hair was down instead of up in her typical buns, and it looked like she had been wearing makeup, but he finally knew who it was.

“Rey,” he croaked, or tried to. His throat was too dry for him to even swallow. 

Rey grabbed something from next to the bed. It clattered, and then she pushed something cold against his lips. He opened them in surprise. Rey’s fingers on his lips… She withdrew them too quickly for his fuzzy brain to fully appreciate the situation. He realized she’d given him an ice cube and wondered if he finished this one if she’d do it again. 

“How are you feeling?” she asked, leaning over him anxiously. 

He blinked in surprise, then thought about the question. Everything was vaguely achey, as far as he could tell around the drumbeat in his head. “Terrible,” he muttered around the ice cube.

She rolled her eyes. “I bet.” She sat back in the chair next to the bed. “You’re an idiot,” she told him.

He snorted, then winced again. “That sounds familiar.”

“It should. I’ve mentioned it a couple times tonight.” She was trying to look annoyed with him, but her hand still rested on the bed. 

“What happened?” 

For some reason, she turned slightly pink at that. She pushed another ice cube at him. Her fingers were warm against his lips, and he flushed as well. “What do you remember?” she asked, not meeting his eyes.

He closed his eyes and tried to think back. Everything hurt. Flashes of blurred scenes passed through his mind, but disappeared before he understood any of them. “I don’t know,” he finally said, frustrated. She was looking at him now, with a combination of exasperation and dismay. “What?” he asked with trepidation. 

She huffed. “You fell down the stairs. Do you remember that?” 

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to concentrate around all the noise. Something - walking down the hallway, in his apartment? Just wearing his slacks, he was at the top of the stairs. Something fell down from the leg of his pants; it had been wedged against his knee - how had it gotten there? It was yellow and fluffy - his foot snagged on it, the stairs rushed forward, and his head gave a particularly painful throb. He raised the hand not attached to anything to press against his forehead. His eyes flew open when Rey’s hand covered his, both soft and callused. 

“Do you want me to call the nurse?” she asked worriedly. “I can get her to come back if you need.”

“It’s fine,” he gritted out. His head throbbed again. “...maybe you should call her.”

Rey walked to the door and leaned out into the hallway. He rubbed his fingers against his eyes in an attempt to get the pounding to quiet. He jumped when he felt someone touch the lines attached to his hand. His eyes opened and saw an older, very tired looking woman in scrubs bending over him.

“You’re back with us then?” the nurse said as she checked him over.

“I guess,” he said uncomfortably, following her finger with his eyes.

She sighed. “Pity. I guess we’ll never know which of your daughters is going to grow up to be president.”

Kylo choked. “What?”

The nurse continued blithely with her tasks. “Oh, you must not remember. Once we finally got you to cooperate-” she cast him a look that gave him idea of just how difficult he’d been “-you were quite talkative about your future children.” She nodded at Rey. Kylo glanced over and saw she was flushing furiously red. He felt his own face heat. 

“If I remember,” the nurse went on, either ignoring, or more likely enjoying his embarrassment, “you were insistent on two daughters, and one or two more, either girls or boys. You were very adamant that they would be smart _and_ beautiful; that was repeated a few times. Let me think -” she paused while making notes on his charts “- I think you decided that they would have her features and your hair. You were just getting into their future careers when you finally fell asleep.” She smiled at them both. “Well, I think that’s all for me! Looks like you’re in good shape, though you’ll need monitoring for at least the next twenty-four hours. I’ll go talk to the doctor to get your discharge put through.” She left with a spring in her step.

Kylo chanced a look at Rey, who was looking determinedly at the wall, face still brightly flushed. “I - were you here for all of that?” he asked, feeling he knew the answer.

She nodded, still not looking at him. “Yeah, it was - it was fine though, you weren’t really yourself -”

He wondered if he could convincingly fall back to sleep and forget this as well. “Still - I’m sorry.”

“No, really, it’s fine.” She glanced at him quickly, giving him a brief smile. “It’s really the nurses you should be apologizing to, you were a right ass when they got you in. I think it ended up taking four of them to keep you from running off at one point. You’re lucky you have such good insurance.”

“If you stick around First Order, you could get the same deal,” he offered, with a tentative smile.

She shook her head, smiling back. “Nice try. I’ll get by on university health services for now; with any luck I’ll have something actually in my field by the summer. Poe knows a guy he’s going to introduce me to.”

He looked down at the sheets, then back up. “You’ll do great,” he told her sincerely.

“Yeah, I will.” She grinned at him.

His head pounded again, and he had another flash of - something, almost like deja vu. 

The nurse came back, carrying a stack of forms. “Just a couple things for you to sign, then we’ll get you out of here,” she said brightly, seeming pleased by the idea. 

Kylo took the sheets from her, signing on the lines she pointed out to him, not bothering to read the swimming words. He knew better than to sign things blindly, but he would have offered her quite a lot to escape from this confusing situation and get back to his apartment to pass out again on his own bed. 

“Perfect,” the nurse said, once he had finished the final page, whisking the forms away. “I’ll leave this here for you.” She pulled a couple pages off and set them on the bedside table “You can get him ready to go, right?” she asked Rey, clearly not expecting an answer. 

“Actually -” Rey started, but the nurse was already at the door. 

Rey turned to him. “Um, your pants are here,” she said, gesturing to next to the bed. “I can help you -” 

“I can get dressed on my own,” Kylo grumbled. The impact of her words suddenly hit him, and his brain finally registered a fact that had been lost in the mind-numbing pain: he was only wearing a flimsy hospital gown. He didn’t have so much as a pair of underwear on and was now uncomfortably aware of the sheets on his skin through the gap in the gown. His face burned.

Rey bobbed her head. “Just - let me know if you need anything. It’s not like I haven’t - “ she cut herself off, turning red again, matching him.

“Thanks,” he muttered. Then, embarrassed: “Could you-?” 

“What?” Rey looked at him in confusion, then understanding dawned. “Oh, yeah, sure.” She turned towards the window. “Um, yell if you need help. Don’t hurt yourself again, please.”

Slowly, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. His head spun wildly, and he gripped the edge of the bed tightly to prevent himself from falling in either direction. He breathed slowly, trying to tamp down the rising nausea. He closed his eyes, letting the metal of the bed frame ground him. He thought about opening them, to check if there was a trash can by the bed, but it seemed like a bad idea.

“Kylo?” Rey’s voice was soft and came from next to him. Her hand settled lightly on his shoulder. “Come on, let me help you.”

Eyes still squeezed shut, he nodded. Her hand left, but she returned a moment later. His eyes flew open when he felt her hands on his feet. She was kneeling on the floor, his slacks in her hand, pulling them onto his legs.

“You don’t have to-” he protested.

“I think the nurse probably wants us out of here sometime today.”

Reluctantly, he conceded the point and let her continue. Not that there was a whole lot he could have done to stop her. She was mildly embarrassed, cheeks still pink, but efficient. He tried to draw from that and act as if it was a normal thing to have his intern help to dress him. It didn’t work. Rey reached the edge of edge of the bed, sliding his pants over the gown. “Here, stand up,” she prodded. 

“I can do it,” he insisted again. He tried to stand, but barely got a few inches up before landing back on the bed. Rey pursed her lips.

“Lean on me,” she instructed. 

Kylo tentatively placed his hands on her shoulders. They were narrow, but he could feel the muscles under his fingers as she helped him up. She pulled the pants up past his hips, slightly uncomfortable with the hospital gown still stuffed into them. He stared across the room, face blazing, as Rey’s hands fumbled at his stomach with the fastenings. Her head was just in front of his, bent down under his nose, and he told himself repeatedly how terrible of an idea it would be to lean closer. He was incredibly lucky she hadn’t walked out on him already.

She finished and took a step back. His hands fell from his shoulders and he started to sway, but she caught them. “They left a wheelchair; let’s get you to that,” she suggested. She led him across the room with his arm around her shoulder and hers around his back. He sat heavily down in the wheelchair and Rey fetched his paperwork. “You good?” she asked, positioning herself behind him.

“Besides the humiliation?” he muttered.

She snorted. “You’ll live.” 

She rolled him into the hallway, stopping briefly at the nurse’s station. He did his best not to make eye contact with anyone. He attempted to busy himself by reading the papers he’d been handed, but trying to focus on the dancing words was not making him feel any better. He settled for glaring into the distance. 

Rey came back and they continued through the waiting area and out the automatic doors. The brisk air bit into his skin under the thin gown, startling him into being slightly more alert. He folded his arms in front of him and tried not to shiver. Within minutes, a yellow cab pulled up. Rey opened the door and helped him into the backseat, then took her seat next to him. The driver looked back at them expectantly.

“Shit,” Rey muttered. She turned to him. “Do you remember your address?”

He ignored the instinctual annoyance and gave the driver directions. It was a perfectly reasonable question given the circumstances. He furrowed his brow.

“How did I get here?” he asked Rey.

“Ambulance. I wasn’t sure whether or not to move you; you hit your head pretty hard and I didn’t want to make anything worse.”

He nodded slowly. “You were - at my apartment?”

She turned pink again. “Yeah, you invited me.” She looked at him hopefully. “Do you remember?” He shook his head and her expression dropped. “It’s okay. The doctor said things might come back to you, but even if they don’t - it’s okay.” She sounded as if she was reassuring herself as much as him. 

He nodded again and leaned his head back against the seat. He closed his eyes, thinking about the little bit he had remembered. Something about yellow...

-

Kylo nervously patted the blonde wig covering his dark hair, looking out over the crowd of people. Various colleagues filled the room, some he recognized, plenty he didn’t, in various states of inebriation despite the early hour. He was searching for one person in particular, and he found her in the shadow of a pillar, holding a drink and scanning the room. He adjusted his glasses and walked over.

Rey barely glanced at him as he approached, shooting him a look out of the corner of her eye, then returning to her search. He cleared his throat. 

“Hi,” he said, the single word coming out somewhat strangled as he tried to alter his voice halfway through. 

She glanced at him again, then looked away. “Hi.”

Kylo reminded himself that this was the point, she wasn’t supposed to recognize him like this. “I’m...Matt. From IT.”

This time her look was derisive. “So you’re responsible for the email system getting hacked last week?”

“No! Well, I guess, I mean…” She wasn’t looking at him anymore. “What do you do?” he asked desperately.

“I work under Kylo Ren, I mostly do data analysis.” Her focus was far from him. She leaned onto her tiptoes to try to see better, then settled back down again in disappointment. 

“That must be pretty great,” he stammered.

She finally really looked at him, with raised brows. “Really?”

“Y-yeah, why not? He’s a great guy - or that’s what I’ve heard?”

Her eyebrows shot higher. “Who have you been talking to?”

“You know - people? Just some real talk...with some real folk?”

She gave a shocked laugh. “Well, you must have been talking to someone different than everyone else. Usually people’s first response is ‘you poor thing’ followed by ‘pay must be really good for that job’.”

He scowled. “I can’t imagine why people think working for m-him would be so terrible. It’s not like you’re working for Hux.”

She laughed again. “True. I’m not sure they could pay me enough for that.”

She went back to looking across the room. Hux stood on the small stage at the end of the room announcing the employees of the month for the year, like he was giving out awards for perfect attendance at an elementary school graduation. Kylo clenched his teeth as Hux gave another condescending smile to another winner from his own department. He turned back to Rey determinedly. “So...how is working for - Kylo Ren?”

She shrugged. “Not as bad as people assume.” She shot a glance at him. “Though maybe not as exciting as your...folk apparently think.” She half smiled. “He’s an ass, but I’ve figured out how to deal with him. They pay me enough to stay on for now.” She raised herself onto her toes again. “He was supposed to be here tonight,” she muttered.

“I’m sure he’s just busy,” he offered, feeling guilty. He had told her he would be there. This plan was a stupid last minute decision, inspired by passing a storefront on the way home. He’d seen the wig and been struck with the sudden inspiration for a way to get to know Rey outside of being her boss. He hadn’t even been sure he’d go through with it until he was standing with a mouth full of bobby pins in front of the mirror five minutes before leaving. 

She snorted. “He probably forgot.”

“It’s New Year’s Eve, how could he forget that?” he asked, feeling mildly insulted. 

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, probably got a last minute email and dropped everything to answer. Or the Wall Street Journal just published a _really_ interesting article on the financial outlook for tin.”

He definitely felt insulted now. “I’m sure he has a good reason.” He hesitated. “Family emergency, maybe?” he offered, cursing himself as soon as he said it.

It seemed to work though. “Maybe,” she said, looking thoughtful. She turned towards him. “So how about you? Don’t you have more exciting things to do on New Year’s Eve than talk to work strangers at a company party?”

“...no.” That would have been true even if he hadn’t decided to come as ‘Matt’. “Don’t you?”

“Eh,” she said, shrugging. “I’ll meet up with friends later. Free food though, can’t pass that up.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, feeling more stupid with every passing minute. At least as Kylo Ren, Rey wanted to talk to him. Usually. He cleared his throat. “You’re still in college then?”

“Yup. Mechanical engineering, junior.”

“Yeah? How’s that?”

“Not bad. Work’s hard, but it’ll be worth it.”

He floundered. “So how’d you end up with First Order?” 

Her shoulders bobbed in her sleeveless dress. “Needed a job to pay for school, and for all his quirks, Kylo lets me work around classes.” She hesitated, and Kylo could feel her reluctance to continue the conversation. “You?”

“I - I work in IT.”

Her eyebrows were back in the air. “Yeah, you said.”

“Well...I was looking for a job in IT. And they had one.”

“...really.”

“Yeah.” He coughed and clenched his hand in the stupid khakis he’d worn to stop himself from pulling on his hair. “So...working for Kylo Ren...not so bad?” Forget tugging the idiotic wig off, he was going to bang his head against the nearest wall until he could forget this whole exchange.

“...no, not so bad.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You know, one of the things about working for him that I wouldn’t have expected to enjoy is watching him tear into people.” His eyes widened behind his glasses. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, there are some of them I feel bad for,” she continued, blithely ignoring his reaction aside from a quirk at the corner of her lips. “But there are some people who deserve it. Speaking of which, I think I remember your boss coming by the other day about the hacking thing.” She smiled pleasantly at him. 

“Um...I guess he did.” She continued smiling at him and he cast around desperately for a way to continue the conversation that didn’t involve him giving up on the whole charade. “He sounds like my mother,” he said, 

“...what?”

“You’d like her,” he said, babbling in a panic. “I mean - she’s very outspoken.” He could feel his cheeks turning bright red and knew his ears were burning. He was Kylo Ren, dammit, successful and intelligent, and he couldn’t even hold a five minute conversation with his assistant as a normal human being. He wondered how successful sprinting from the room would be. Rey also seemed to be looking for exit strategies. “She once strangled a man with his own tie.”

That got her attention, though she was still looking at him askance. “Really?”

He nodded, bobbing his head like an idiot. “Yeah. He ended up in the hospital, which was better than he deserved. The tie ripped though, or she might have finished the job.”

Her eyes were wide. “What happened?”

His mind raced. Had he told Rey about his mother? He didn’t think so, but he wasn’t sure. “She’s a - “ not a politician, something else “- lawyer, and this man was suspected of a string of crimes, including human trafficking. She’d helped gather evidence against him, and he came into her office to threaten her. She grabbed him by his tie and choked him until it broke. It was enough to knock him out until the police got there.”

Rey grinned. “She sounds amazing.”

He smiled. “She is. She led protests for years until she started working from inside the system.” He smiled humorlessly. “Then they kicked her out, so she’s back to banging on doors again.”

“What’d she get kicked out for? Threatening to do a judge in with his wig?”

He laughed, then grimaced. There was no way to tell her that without revealing himself. “Not quite. It’s a long story,” he hedged. “There was that time she had to go rescue Dad from the man she ended up strangling though.”

“Yeah?” Rey grinned up at him, and he was pretty sure he’d tell her anything.

The evening continued like that, with him telling her stories from his past, bringing up memories he hadn’t thought about in years. She talked to him a bit about herself as well, though she had little reason to open up to a stranger, something else he had neglected to think about. (Which assumed he had thought through this at all, which was a stretch.) They at least managed a normal conversation without him completely embarrassing himself again, that he could remember. No more than he normally did around Rey anyway.

He leaned his head further into the sticky pleather of the cab seat, trying to remember more. Like exactly how much he had told her about his family, a subject he’d avoided completely until she showed interest in it. His thoughts were too slippery though, and Rey’s voice broke through his reverie. 


	2. Discovery

“We’re here.” The driver pulled over in front of his apartment. Rey got out, then rushed around to his side, hurrying in the face of horns blaring behind them. 

“‘m fine,” he mumbled as he tried to stand, avoiding her eyes. He reconsidered that statement as the ground rolled under his feet. 

She wrapped his arm around her and he leaned into her, trying to take into account how much smaller she was than him. “Sure,” she said, exasperated but with humor in her voice. “I’ll just help you up just in case.”

Rey got them into the building and into the elevator, and he leaned heavily against the wall. He tried to sort through the memories that had resurfaced during his nap, not entirely sure what was real. They were hard to pin down, but dressing in khakis in a wig in some misguided attempt to connect with Rey stood out. It was impressive that he had come up with that plan before suffering head trauma. But Rey was here, with him, and she had been in his apartment. He reached up surreptitiously to tug on his hair. No, definitely not still wearing the wig. Something had happened, but he had no earthly idea what. Apparently it hadn't been bad enough to make Rey abandon him entirely, which was some consolation. 

He leaned his head against the wall and winced. He felt exhausted, like he could sleep for another couple days. Rey looked at him worriedly. 

“We’re almost there, okay? And you should eat something before sleeping again.”

“Not hungry,” he muttered.

She huffed. “That wasn’t a question.” He smiled.

The elevator let them off, and they hobbled their way to his door with him now leaning on Rey much more than he should. The ground was definitely moving under him. She fumbled with his keys and let them in, then led him to the couch, where he collapsed gratefully. She cast him a worried look before heading into the kitchen.

“Where do you keep your soup?” she asked, opening cabinets randomly.

He winced. “Canned soup is nothing but chemicals, sodium, and preservatives.”

She closed a cabinet particularly loudly and looked at him in disbelief. “Water is a chemical, you paranoid snob.” She tried a few more futilely. “What about bullion?”

“Above the stove to the left, behind the spices.”

She found it, and dumped a cube into a mug he didn’t even know he had with some water before sticking it in the microwave. He closed his eyes and was about to drift off when the microwave’s beeping jolted him awake again. She brought the mug over to him with a spoon. 

“I don’t suppose you have any crackers around?”

He nodded, curling a hand around the hot mug when she set it on the coffee table. “With the snacks, tall cabinet to the right of the fridge, towards the top.”

She rummaged around and emerged with the crackers, snorting when she saw the label. “And I thought Ritz was fancy.” She brought them over, opening a package for him. “You’re so pretentious,” she informed him.

He raised his nose in the air. “You just don’t appreciate good taste.”

She snorted. “I have perfectly good taste.” She tasted a cracker and made a face. “These need salt.”

“They’re not supposed to have salt, that’s the _point_.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s dumb. You could just eat a handful of flour for the same effect.”

“No appreciation at all,” he muttered into the mug, smiling. He set it back on the table and rubbed his forehead. “I think I’m going to nap.”

She looked into the mug. “You’ve had one sip!” she accused.

“Two. And a cracker. Anyway, I told you I wasn’t hungry.” 

“You have to eat to get better.”

He waved a hand. “I’m fine. Just need some sleep.”

The look she cast him clearly broadcast her doubt, but she stood to help him to his room. “Yeah, you’re just fine,” she said under her breath as he leaned heavily on her. He ignored that.

She let him down onto his bed and pulled the shades over his windows, though it was already getting dark out. “I’m still going to be waking you up every couple hours,” she warned.

“‘m fine,” he mumbled again. It was her turn to ignore him as she gathered a blanket from the end of the bed and pulled it over his shoulders. He felt like a child, which came with a sudden stab of guilt for making Rey feel like she had to take care of him. “Thanks,” he said quietly as she turned to leave. He sat up slightly. “You don’t have to do this; you can go home. I’m sure you have stuff, homework or friends or something.” 

She paused at the door. “Get some sleep, Kylo.” She closed the door most of the way behind her, leaving a crack open to the hallway. 

He flopped back to the bed, guilt still weighing on him. He considered going back out to the living room to talk to her, but his eyes closed, and he was asleep before he knew what was happening.

His dreams were fuzzy at first, a tangle of memories from his childhood and the more recent past. His mother smiling indulgently as his father told him another of his adventures, only interrupting once in a while when his lies were particularly outrageous, faded into a scene of him talking to Rey, with her wearing the dress from last night. She laughed, and his chest felt warm and fluttery. 

The noise in the room grew louder, and they looked to the side to see everyone gathering towards the front of the room, where a projector showed the scene in Times Square. 

“Nearly midnight,” Rey noted. He nodded, and she looked at him, evaluating. She quirked her lips. “I guess you’ll do.”

“Wha-” He cut off when Rey reached up and wrapped an arm around his neck. “Oh.” He glanced up at the crowd, then back down to Rey, eyes flicking down to her lips. “Nearly midnight,” he repeated dumbly.

She looked slightly nervous, like she was waiting for him to protest. He clumsily raised a hand to rest on her waist. She grinned. The countdown pounded in his ears as Rey’s face grew closer, but it faded out completely when their lips touched. 

It was just meant to be brief, a quick kiss in celebration between two (almost) strangers. But she was warm and close and wonderful and Kylo lingered a moment longer than he should have. And Rey responded, pressing her lips against his, pulling at the back of his neck to bring him down to her. He gave a quick inhale. She hesitated, but he didn’t pull back, and she moved closer, pressing their bodies together. She was cool despite the warm room, and his hand carefully slid from her waist to her back. Her mouth opened under his, and their tongues tangled before she broke away.

“Wow,” she said, panting, then pulled him back down. 

He grinned against her lips and put everything he had into the kiss. Kissing Rey was a dream he hadn’t allowed himself to have. (He couldn’t believe he had forgotten a single moment of it. If there was any doubt he had suffered head trauma, forgetting this was proof enough.) She smelled like flowers, and he brought his other hand around her back, allowing himself to slide along the silky fabric of her dress. He was glad for the shadows at the edge of the room, and he pushed them back against the column, leaning over her and covering her body with his. She pressed further into him and gave a small moan into his mouth. 

Her other hand wrapped around his neck, thumbs rubbing against his skin, then moved from his neck to thread through his hair. Somewhere in his mind, alarm bells went off, but he ignored them for the sensation of Rey’s lips under his. 

She paused, then moved her hand again. She pulled back, looking at him suspiciously.

“Wait, Rey-” She didn’t wait. With narrowed eyes, she gave the wig a fierce tug, pulling it off. Her mouth fell open. 

“You-!” He covered her mouth with his hand in panic and she bit down on it. 

“What - Rey!”

“You absolute _asshole_ ,” she hissed, finger in his face. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I was just-”

“I know what you were just!” Her face was just below his, and he nearly had to cross his eyes to look at her. “What the fuck, Kylo!”

He swallowed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think…” He trailed off.

“Yeah, apparently.” 

“I’m sorry,” he said again, quietly.

“You should be,” she said, then snorted. “‘Kylo Ren’s _so_ great, you must _love_ working with him,’” she mimicked. 

“I wasn’t-” He didn’t know what to say. 

She sighed. “Seriously Kylo, _why_?”

He swallowed. “I - wanted to spend time with you. Not as your boss, with people watching, just - as a person. I swear, I wasn’t trying to do - this.”

She crossed her arms. “And your best solution was to dress up as some IT idiot with a horrible haircut and make up stories?”

He grabbed the wig back from her and settled it on his head, fully aware it was probably askew, but ignoring it. “My hair is _fine_ ,” he snapped, then muttered: “and I wasn’t making anything up.”

“Sure,” she said, huffing, but with less anger, enough to make him hopeful that he hadn’t completely screwed things up.

They stood facing one another. Her stance loosened and she bit her lip. “So what now?” he hazarded. She looked him over, chewing on her lip. 

“If we do this,” she finally said. “It does not get back to the office. I mean it, Kylo, it doesn’t matter that I’m not sticking around First Order, this doesn’t come up at work, ever.”

He nodded rapidly. “Absolutely, Rey, I promise.” 

She hesitated a moment more, then pressed herself back against him, lips finding his. Her hands slipped under the wig, through his hair. He cupped her jaw in his hand, still not quite able to believe that it was Rey pressed against him, kissing him. 

She broke for breath again and met his eyes. “Your place or mine?”

His mind froze for a minute on that, before he rasped, “I think I’m closer.”

She grinned. “Perfect. Did you drive?”

Through the crush of people leaving and partying, they wound up at his car. She slid in, and they pulled out of the garage. It was slow going through the streets. Kylo found himself glancing over at Rey at every light, taking in her profile lit by red and orange. The street lights played over her features like an oil painting, adding to the surreality of the situation. She met his look, still smiling, a little nervous, but determined. He found a spot along the street outside of his apartment and parked, rushing around to meet Rey as she got out. He stood in front of her for a moment, uncertain. She met his eyes.

“Are you sure?” he said quietly.

She took his hand, threading her fingers through his. He looked down in surprise. “I’ve wanted this for months,” she admitted.

Surprise and joy flared through him, and he bent down for an impulsive kiss. She responded enthusiastically. “I have too,” he whispered against her lips. 

He led her to his apartment, still tightly holding each other’s hands. In the elevator, he leaned down to kiss her again, still in mild disbelief as their lips met again. When they broke for breath, their foreheads pressed together, and she smiled up at him, excitement in her eyes. The elevator doors opening interrupted them, and they walked down the hallway to his apartment. He fumbled with the key before getting the door opened. 

Once it was closed again, he hesitated once more. Rey took the lead, reaching up and pulling him down to her. She bit lightly at his lips, and the urgency from the party began to flow faster between them again. Rey’s hands ran over his chest from his waist to his shoulders, then back down again to work on the buttons of his shirt. His own hands clutched at her waist, holding onto her warm form. He began walking her backwards, leading her to his bedroom, and she willingly followed. 

He paused at the foot of the stairs, then leaned down and swung Rey into his arms, one arm under her back and the other under her knees, barely breaking their kiss. She laughed against him. She was a firm weight in his hold as he climbed the stairs, eager to reach their destination. He misstepped halfway up as Rey’s hands found their way under his now opened shirt. She gasped and smacked his chest.

“You’re going to fall and kill both of us!”

“I’m not,” he promised breathlessly, and carefully climbed the rest of the way. 

He nearly tripped over himself getting into his room, but he lay Rey down on his bed without incident. She pulled him down over her, hands working between them to undo his pants, and then pushing them down with her feet. He kicked them behind him. She reached up and pulled off the wig that was still clinging to his hair. 

“This has got to go,” she said, snorting.

He nodded, not bothering to answer, and took it from her, tossing it behind him as well.

Her dress was rucked up around her waist as her legs locked around him and his hands slid down to her thighs, slowly moving higher. They kissed desperately, barely stopping for breath. Her skin was soft and warm as his hands ran over it, with the muscles tightening underneath as she pulled him closer. He reached her underwear and slid underneath to stroke her hips, then continued upward as she gasped and rocked against him. He curved his hands around her sides, smoothing them up over her ribcage, feeling each bump and dip and mark of her body. Her breathing was coming faster now, and he pulled back from her mouth to look down at her. 

He pushed the dress farther, over her bra, thumbs passing over her breasts as he reached her arms. She lay back and let him pull the dress off of her. Her hair spread across the bed as he pulled it over her head and tossed it to the side. She looked up at him, smiling, eyes dark, skin slightly flushed. 

“Beautiful,” he breathed. 

She grinned, blushing, and curled a hand around the back of his neck. He swerved away from her lips though, and instead lay kisses along her arm, starting at her wrist. He pressed his lips along her body, stopping at scars and freckles and every new mark he discovered. He made his way down one arm, then across her chest, lingering in the hollow at the base of her neck. Her other hand entwined in the hair at the back of his neck, tugging on it when he found a particularly sensitive spot. He trailed down the center of her chest, pausing when he reached her bra. She arched up, reaching behind to undo the clasp and pushing the straps down her arms. He pulled it away from her as soon as it was free, and returned immediately to her bared chest. 

He mouthed around the underside of one breast, sucking at the soft flesh. He cupped the other in his hand, thumb stroking the side. She whimpered and arched into him. He nuzzled against the sensitive skin, breathing in the scent of her. He switched sides, sucking and nipping gently around the other breast, before finally capturing the peak in his mouth. She gasped, and he rolled the side not in his mouth with his fingers before switching again. 

Slowly, his hand moved from her breast to her side, sliding down to her hips. He pushed at her panties before pulling back and pulling them down with both hands. He lowered himself between her legs and she propped herself on her elbows, looking down at him, smiling and breathing heavily. He grinned back at her. His heart pounded as he looked at her from his position kneeling on the floor. Her legs hung over the edge of the bed, and she lay on his bed, relaxed and excited and ready for _him_. She was perfect, gorgeous, wonderful, amazing, and it was nothing short of a damn miracle that she was here with him. 

He leaned forward and ran his thumb between her legs. Her hips arched and she gasped.

“Please, Kylo,” she panted.

He obliged, spreading her with his fingers and running his tongue where his thumb had traced. She gasped again, hand coming back down to thread in his hair. He followed her lead, nuzzling closer to her. He licked through her folds, reveling in the taste that was _her_. His hand spread across her stomach, thumb coming down to rest on her clit as his tongue pressed into her. She clenched around him, legs tightening around his head. His thumb rubbed in circles, and his tongue slid against her in a rapid rhythm. She writhed under his mouth, and his hand held her, wrapping around her thigh to keep her steady. She came with a cry, pulling sharply on his hair, thighs clenched around his ears. His head was ringing, but it was so worth it. 

He raised himself over her, and she used her grip on his hair to pull him down to her in a kiss. She devoured him as her feet worked at his hips to find the edge of his boxers and push them down. He helped her, shoving the elastic over his hips and to the floor. He kicked them off as he pushed her into the bed, body covering her completely. One of her hands clutched his shoulder while the other reached down to his hip. He pulled away just enough to line himself up against her, then pressed inside. Her whole body arched as he slowly filled her. They both froze as his hips settled against hers, panting desperately. Her blunt fingernails dug into his hip and shoulder, and he groaned, pressing into her again.

“Rey,” he moaned, burying his face in her neck. 

“Kylo,” she gasped in return, legs wrapping around him. 

He thrust into her, again and again, and she rolled her hips with him, keeping their rhythm. Kylo worked a hand between them, thumb pressing back against her clit, and she clenched around him tightly. He groaned, and his hips snapped into her faster. She met him, panting and moaning into his ear. His hand not occupied between her legs found hers, and he pressed it back against the bedspread. She stretched underneath him, bodies pressed completely together. He was reaching his end, and just when he couldn’t hold onto his sanity any longer, she came, shuddering around him. He joined her, gasping for breath.

He fell against the bed, pulling her onto her side with him. They lay against each other, panting. Rey leaned in and pressed her lips against his. They kissed slowly, taking time to enjoy the simple press of lips in the afterglow. Kylo ran his hand over her back, where sweat was cooling on her skin. She shivered, and he pulled back, pushing the blankets out from under them and pulling the bottom layers back over them. 

“Thanks,” Rey murmured. He kissed her forehead in response.

She curled her arms around him, leaning her forehead against his chest. Their breathing slowly started to even out, and Kylo felt exhaustion weighing at him.

“Stay?” he whispered quietly, almost inaudibly into her hair.

She tilted her head up and kissed him. “Of course.”

He squeezed his arms around her, and they drifted to sleep together. 

He woke hours later, while it was still dark out, mouth parched. He tried to fall back asleep, but his throat stuck as he swallowed. Reluctantly, he pulled out of Rey’s arms. She murmured, turning in her sleep. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. 

“Be right back,” he whispered.

He slid out of bed and fumbled around on the floor for his pants or underwear, thinking of the tall windows downstairs. He found his khakis and groggily pulled them on. He paused at the door, looking back at Rey. The sheets were tangled around her and the city lights bathed her skin. She looked like a work of art, all light and dark, the light just enough for him to see every mark he’d kissed. His chest tightened. She’d wake up in his apartment, and he could talk with her, hold her... He finally turned away, eager to return quickly. 

He walked down the hallway, towards the stairs; something caught in his pants, and he was falling - 

He woke up fully this time, alone in his bed. He panted, looking around the dark room. Dreams and memories raced through his head, overwhelming him. He needed to talk to Rey. He shoved the blankets back and stumbled to the floor, then made his way down the hall and downstairs, keeping a hand on the wall for balance. 

The light was still on downstairs, and Rey was asleep on the couch, curled up with her phone on the coffee table. He watched her for a moment, the slow rise and fall of her chest. He wanted to wake her, needed to know if he’d remembered last night or just dreamed it. But she had been chasing after him for the past day; the last thing she needed was for him to interrupt her sleep. He sat heavily on the other end of the couch instead.

Unfortunately, that was enough to wake her up. She opened her eyes blearily.

“Kylo?” she said hoarsely. She furrowed her brow at him and then seemed to jerk awake. She grabbed her phone and looked at the time, then sighed in relief. “It was still another hour before I was needed to check on you.” She looked at him worriedly. “Are you okay?”

He just stared at her, not even sure what to say. ‘Did you really sleep with me last night’ didn’t seem like a great conversation starter. Instead, he lurched forward and pressed his lips to hers. 

She kissed him back before pulling abruptly away. Her hand settled on his shoulder and she looked at him, eyes wide. “Kylo - what -” She pulled in a shocked breath. “Do you remember?”

He nodded and swallowed. “I - I think so.” He looked into her eyes desperately for some indication he had gotten it right. Tentatively, he kissed her again, lightly, ready to be pushed away. 

She pulled him closer instead, arms wrapping around his neck. Her mouth slanted against his, deepening the kiss, and he eagerly responded, refreshing the fuzzy memories with new ones, saving every moment to remember forever. 

She laughed against his lips, and he smiled, pulling back to see her. Her eyes were wet. “Thank God,” she said, breathlessly. “I was going to have to go back to the office with the same stupid crush but knowing that you - and not be able to do anything about it.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, pressing kisses to her damp cheeks. “I promise, I’m never going to forget this again.”

She laughed again. “You better not,” she said, grinning, then pulled him back down to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think, and feel free to visit me on [tumblr](http://thewayofthetrashcompactor.tumblr.com/)!


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